We must draft Oline 1st. Can you imagine if we had taken Joe Thomas instead of CJ? Kevin Smith would be flying through holes and Kitna may not have spent his whole season on his tailbone. What good is talent at qb,rb and wr if there is no time to throw the ball? Michael Oher is our #1. Have any of you seen film of this guy? His feet are quick as lightning and he is just massive.
I believe the Cowboys are going to have problems winning for the next month (although they have a bye week in there and may have problems the rest of the year and I think that their draft pick will be closer to 18-21 than 25 which should give us a shot at a good LB prospect. I like Mayaluga (sp?) but I think we need to really scout Dizon. Dizon has a nose for the ball and can actually tackle and Marinelli is a moron for not playing him.

We must draft Oline 1st. Can you imagine if we had taken Joe Thomas instead of CJ? Kevin Smith would be flying through holes and Kitna may not have spent his whole season on his tailbone. What good is talent at qb,rb and wr if there is no time to throw the ball? Michael Oher is our #1. Have any of you seen film of this guy? His feet are quick as lightning and he is just massive.
I believe the Cowboys are going to have problems winning for the next month (although they have a bye week in there and may have problems the rest of the year and I think that their draft pick will be closer to 18-21 than 25 which should give us a shot at a good LB prospect. I like Mayaluga (sp?) but I think we need to really scout Dizon. Dizon has a nose for the ball and can actually tackle and Marinelli is a moron for not playing him.

I think if you are doing "coulda woulda shoulda" in that draft it should be for AD.

The Lions were reeling from two successive years of terrible O-line play. Dead last rushing and 2nd from last in sacks allowed. I screamed we did not need C. Johnson because we already had 4300 yds. receiving but that we needed to improve our tackles to compete with any offense. I represented the Detroit franchise in the scout.com draft and drafted Joe Thomas. The Lions stuck with the best player available in CJ. That provided us with a disgruntled receiver who would eventually leave. We were fortunate to get a great package from the Cowboys who if they were patient would have gotten him in free agency for a little bit of money. I am not convinced Calvin will ever be great becaus ehe will have Lions QB's throwing to him.
The ideal premise would be re-building the O-line and locking up a left tackle. With that in mind, I like Oher and Monroe.
Just for information purposes, I was able to draft Derrick Harvey and Jerod Mayo in the draft his past year and I think in doing so I also out-performed the Lions when they traded down and grabbed Cherilous and in the second grabbed Dizon.

I don't know if it matters to anyone, but Colt MCoy announed that he's gonna stay in school after this year. This isn't much of a surprise, but could anybody imagine if all of the junior QBs would have come out? Bradford, McCoy, Sanchez, and Stafford would have put us in a great position toget one of them potentially in the top of the 2nd if we choose to go in that direction. I've been pretty impressed with McCoy the last 2 weeks, most importantly his ability to go through his progressions and then his ability to buy time to give himself the opportunity to get the ball to the open man.

why not fix your lines with the next two years... maybe with a decent line bodden may look like what you paid him for.

I've always said build the line first and give Stanton a full year as the starter, including a full offseason, if he doesn't work then at least we know what we have and are in a position to get our QB at the top of the 2010 draft, I hope every QB but one stays another yr. just so we might have a potential option to trade down to a team needing their signal caller (Chiefs?)

I hear alot of Oher talk and for good reason dude's a freak. But I don't see that as the way we go. We have Backus and a first round pick in Cherilus who needs to play and learn under better coaching. On that note what about Rus Grimm? The guy is a very successful O-Line coach has been an OC for a while and great with O-Linemen.

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Well the way I see it your best player is on your offense. Calvin Johnson is also your best chance at winning right now, so at least 2 of those first 3 high picks should go to helping out Calvin Johnson ie LT and QB and those are 2 positions that don't really matter what scheme or head coach you have. A great one can play great in any offense. Also on offense you have Kevin Smith who is young and talented. With an improved Oline he can help win games too.

Whats up with Gosder Cherlius anyway? He looked awful in my only experience watching him this year and I also heard him and I believe Rameriz were actually benched mid game?

Yes, if you want to win a few games, you draft for immediate help but if you want to build a Super Bowl contender then a QB becomes a top priority if one is available. If one isn't, you take the top player rated in the draft as long as he fills a primary position on a football team.
Within 3 years, if Detroit wants to become a solid football team, you can assume that maybe only 2-5 veterans will survive the purge if we hire a decent HC backed by a decent GM. Winning next season is a zero priority, great teams with solid HC's use their 1st season to get rid of the deadwood and players who don't fit the new schemes. Very few of Detroit's starters would survive such a purge.
Of course, if we fail to hire either a good GM or HC, then we will see the team attempt to improve their current record right away and make due with the players still on the team. There will be little of a purge and we will become at best, a middle of the road team if we are lucky. This has generally been the method employed under WCF and the results are easy to see. Forget about every winning a Super Bowl and settle for between 7-9 victories if that, and the occasional but rare playoff game where you are a one and out team.
Excuse me if this loser's method doesn't excite me.

As for Cherilus, it is looking more and more like he is another Millen 1st round bust who cannot pass block and who may have to attempt a move to OG to save his career if he can make the adjustment. It really shouldn't come as a surprise to Lion's fans that Millen picked another flop since he was drafting much later in the draft than he was used to. If you cannot draft successfully in the top 5 or even the top 10, how much success do you expect when you draft later?

We do need to go OL and give Stanton some burn. Whether he sucks or not, we need OL. If we go for that, we can then address whatever else we need from there. Probably would be QB if he doesn't turn out to be what we hoped......... but I am optimistic here.

The Lions need to get TWO offensive guards this offseason. I am sick of Mulitalo, Peterman, Ramirez, McCollum, and that other dude who's name eludes me due to his irrelevance. Backus might actually look half respectable if the guy next to him didn't suck so much.

i hate stafford for our pick. anybody but stafford. if you have the best running back in college football and a top notch defense and you are still not a top 10 heisman candidate then i really don't want to hear about him becoming a #1 pick to a team without a defense or a running game. yeah he has a strong arm, but its like having a guy on your team who bats .250 and only hits solo home runs in blowout games. its nice on paper, but he's missing something. now if he absolutely goes off in a bowl game or sec title game then it'll ease some doubts, but if he's going to play on a team like detroit, then i want to be damn sure he doesn't fold under pressure like matt millen's big head in space. i want to hear him get a nickname like matty-ice or hopefully becomes the stafford lion (play on stafford loan-loans backed with full faith of u.s. government, he could be backed up with full faith of lions fans provided he doesn't play like a folding chair)

so please, matt stafford, make me believe or if not then at the very least please play poorly enough so that its a no-brainer that we should not draft you. its too ambiguous right now and for a #1 pick it shouldn't be.

I hear alot of Oher talk and for good reason dude's a freak. But I don't see that as the way we go. We have Backus and a first round pick in Cherilus who needs to play and learn under better coaching. On that note what about Rus Grimm? The guy is a very successful O-Line coach has been an OC for a while and great with O-Linemen.

Russ Grimm isn't detroit material. Besides, if you leave the steelers organization to go to arizona, that means a lot.

I'd almost suggest trying to get someone like Jeff Jagodzinski from GB. Love the man, has produced serious talent in O-Line when he was at BC... never flashy, but always solid, like what shanny has been able to do with absolutely no o-line talent some times, create a good conditioning system, workingmans approach to the o-line that'll resonate well with detroit and the black and blue division.

which brings me onto my next point. why is it the black and blue division when we have the viqueens?

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Russ Grimm isn't detroit material. Besides, if you leave the steelers organization to go to arizona, that means a lot.

I'd almost suggest trying to get someone like Jeff Jagodzinski from GB. Love the man, has produced serious talent in O-Line when he was at BC... never flashy, but always solid, like what shanny has been able to do with absolutely no o-line talent some times, create a good conditioning system, workingmans approach to the o-line that'll resonate well with detroit and the black and blue division.

which brings me onto my next point. why is it the black and blue division when we have the viqueens?

I don't know if it matters to anyone, but Colt MCoy announed that he's gonna stay in school after this year. This isn't much of a surprise, but could anybody imagine if all of the junior QBs would have come out? Bradford, McCoy, Sanchez, and Stafford would have put us in a great position toget one of them potentially in the top of the 2nd if we choose to go in that direction. I've been pretty impressed with McCoy the last 2 weeks, most importantly his ability to go through his progressions and then his ability to buy time to give himself the opportunity to get the ball to the open man.

I agree, McCoy continues to impress in B12 play ... he's in hte zone. NOT sold that his game equates to the NFL. Maybe similar to another Colt from Hawaii last year, who looked awesome on Saturday's but just okay on Sunday???

Curious on the posts view of Sam Bradford.
Although just a sophmore he really has great command of Stoop's offense. My guess is he stays on campus 1 more year and he might be worthy of the Lion's 2010 pick. This way they draft/FA and build the leftside of the o-line in 09 and complement the hogs with the sexy pick the following year ... more than likely a top 10 pick. Plenty to marinate on there, curious of your (and others)thoughts on Bradford in 2010. :)

I want Bradford in 2010. It was part of my offseason plan I typed up in that other thread.

When we took Harrington to (sort of) start the Millen rebuilding era (if there is such a thing), we took the QB first and then got the surrounding players. I'd rather solidify the O-Line, and make sure we've got someone other than CJ that the rookie QB can rely on (be it a RB, TE, whatever).

I agree with you all on Bradford. He looks like he should be our next QB. But this year, I want OL or Defense in Round 1. But even if Bradford does declare, I'd pass on him if one of the LT's proves to be somewhere around equal value.

I agree with you all on Bradford. He looks like he should be our next QB. But this year, I want OL or Defense in Round 1. But even if Bradford does declare, I'd pass on him if one of the LT's proves to be somewhere around equal value.

I just don't see the Lions taking a LT in the top 5. Still too much money invested in Backus.

I am hoping a defensive player moves up to be worthy of such high a pick if Bradford doesn't come out early.

In all honesty, even though I whole hardily support drafting a QB, drafting a junior QB is too high a risk for me. I don't trust our scouting department's ability to assess talent never mind a junior QB. Besides I really doubt that many junior QB's will declare. I don't see any of them that are more than a 11-20 range prospect without a senior season under their belt.
Just my opinion but Bradford looks a lot like Harrington to me and I'd want to see him play as a senior before I'd use a top 5 pick on him.

I want Bradford in 2010. It was part of my offseason plan I typed up in that other thread.

When we took Harrington to (sort of) start the Millen rebuilding era (if there is such a thing), we took the QB first and then got the surrounding players. I'd rather solidify the O-Line, and make sure we've got someone other than CJ that the rookie QB can rely on (be it a RB, TE, whatever).

I fully believe in building the Oline and then getting our QB once we can protect him and provide him with an adequate running game, I think it'll help simplify the transition for the QB, hopefully.

The funny part of the rebuilding around Joey franchise is that the year before him we drafted Backus and Raiola, so we've already failed with this type of rebuilding plan...but what haven't we failed with? For the record I've never thought that Backus was good but I wasn't assessing talent at that time so I dont know if I would've agreed with the pick. We also drafted OT the 2 years previously (3 1st rd OT in 3 yrs)

I fully believe in building the Oline and then getting our QB once we can protect him and provide him with an adequate running game, I think it'll help simplify the transition for the QB, hopefully.

The funny part of the rebuilding around Joey franchise is that the year before him we drafted Backus and Raiola, so we've already failed with this type of rebuilding plan...but what haven't we failed with? For the record I've never thought that Backus was good but I wasn't assessing talent at that time so I dont know if I would've agreed with the pick. We also drafted OT the 2 years previously (3 1st rd OT in 3 yrs)